1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus processing image data.
2. Description of Related Art
A related art image processing apparatus fringes a contour of a character image in white in a case of printing an image having the character image to be read by an image reading apparatus such as a scanner and a bar-code reader, allowing the character image to be accurately read by the image reading apparatus.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2001-28686 discloses a method for binarizing a multi-color image in usage of a monochrome printer to facilitate recognition of a letter or letters as a character image. According to the binarization method, the letter or letters are printed in such a manner that periphery of the letters to be recognized is fringed in white, so that the letters are separated from a background portion, thereby surely recognizing the letters.
In a case where the character image is printed in such a manner that the periphery thereof to be recognized is fringed in white by the binarization method, however, image information in a fringed portion is completely lost, causing the loss of readability.
The present invention provides an image processing apparatus capable of reducing (if not minimizing) occurrences of losing image information in a fringed portion and capable of maintaining readability of a character image to be recognized.